


I regret nothing at all

by pauOMG_ST



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: Drama, Explicit Language, F/M, Horror, Romance, Sex, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 10:07:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 17,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23849440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pauOMG_ST/pseuds/pauOMG_ST
Summary: This story narrates the past-life and memories of Jake Park, Claudette Morel, Dwight Fairfield and Meg Thomas before and after the entity consumed them. If death is not tan escape, what could be the end to this torment?There was a time where everything was normal, where people could fall in love, where death was the end and life was worth living. They would give everything to get all that back.
Relationships: Claudette Morel/Jake Park, Dwight Fairfield/Meg Thomas
Comments: 29
Kudos: 74





	1. Unfair

**Author's Note:**

> Each chapter is inspired in a song that helped me set the mood for each one, so they will be titled after them :) I'll also include a link to the song in case you wanna listen to it while reading. I want to say that English is not my main language so excuse me if I make any mistakes!  
> Also, if you're reading this, it means you're a JakexClaudette shipper and I love you for that.  
> Also, since a reader requested it, we also have MegxDwight and I honestly love it.  
> Love to you all <3 
> 
> Song of the chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URNkr1TyiSQ

“So how was the first semester? Did you meet any interesting people? You know that the key to be successful in this business, or any business to be honest, is to have the right contacts, son.”

Business was all that Gerald cared about. Jake’s earliest memories are full of that: his father not making it in time for dinner, not coming to his birthday party, not being in Father’s day celebrations, buying expensive gifts for Christmas but being a terrible dad the rest of the year, all because of their family business.  
‘Park Constructions’ has always been the only God that Gerald was devoted to, and he wanted to make sure that his legacy dedicated its life to it as well. If you didn’t know the Park family from the inside, you could think that he succeeded on that purpose: his two sons were in a prestigious college and someday they were going to be civil engineers. The eldest brother, Brody, was actually really close to getting his degree.

“I didn’t see him doing more that going out of his room to get to class or going to some stupid party. I didn’t see him at any important conference or seminars, so I figure that the answer is no” Brody said, glancing at his brother with annoyance. “I honestly don’t know how will he do when it’s his time to face clients and workers.”

Gerald frowned. Jake closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath, and then, he stared at the window with resignation. It wasn’t really true, he did meet people, but he wasn’t really interested in pretending that he care about them.

“Jake, you need to take this seriously and start to think about the man you need to become. Your brother is about to finish college and he will need your help to run this business when I’m not around anymore. You’re not longer a kid and you need to be ready for real life as soon as possible.” Gerald said impatiently.  
“Yes, father. I’m sorry.” Jake answered, briefly looking at his dad to then resume eating his dinner. His mother, who remained silent until that moment, cleared her throat to redirect the attention to her instead of her younger son, and then asked Brody about his latest studies.

Jake didn’t know what he hated more: being at college or being at home. He really hated his father, his brother, and his career. He started to think that he needed a getaway plan, often dreaming about running away from everything and just going to live in the woods. He didn’t really do it until a few years later when his life went to shit: they parents got divorced when his mother found out that Gerald was having an affair, Brody earned an important position at the company and Jake was constantly being compared to him and being pointed as the useless and unsuccessful brother all the time by literally everyone, except for two people: his mother and his girlfriend.  
To be honest, leaving her behind was the only difficult thing about leaving college.


	2. Loaded gun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter we get to know a little about the teenage years of Claudette and Jake, and also a little bit of their college life.  
> Song of the chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPK7qD26-vo  
> This song inspired the chapter because all the chicks are into Jake hehe

He met her on a stormy day, in one of his usual expeditions to the forest near the college campus. He went there every time that he needed time alone, and he even built a refuge made of wood where he could be when the weather was bad as it was that day.  
Claudette was a star student in the botany studies, and she often had to go into the woods to take samples of the local vegetation and bugs that could help with her research. That day, she knew that it was going to rain, but she really needed to finish her study and didn't want to wait until tomorrow. However, when the lightning bolts started to fall from the sky and the wind threatened her with making her fly through the air, she got scared and tried to make her way back to the dorms, but got lost instead. There was too much noise, to many dust flying, and she didn’t know where she was going. That’s when she found the refuge: it was very small, almost invisible between all the trees, flowers and vegetation. She honestly thought that it was abandoned, so she tried to break in, and when Jake heard the noises, he came out outside holding a bat, ready to attack.  
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry. I thought no one was in there!” Claudette exclaimed, terrified of Jake’s threatening pose. She found his face familiar, but didn’t know where she met him before.  
“Who are you? What do you want?” he said, waving the bat just slightly and making distance between them.  
“Please don’t hurt me! I got lost, I..” she stepped back, gulping. “I live in the college, I’m an botanist and was doing some research when the storm started and I got lost, I’m sorry, I’ll leave…”  
He looked at her up and down like he was trying to decide if her story was believable, analyzing the girl for like seemed like hours to her, but it was just for a few seconds. Jake sighed and put the bat down. “It’s okay, I’m sorry for scaring you. I won't hurt you, I thought you could be some kind of thief and I have all my building tools in here. You can come in if you want.” Claudette was hesitant. She didn’t know anything the guy after all.

“I promise. It’s more likely that the storm will hurt you more. Come in.” Jake told her, reassuring. He extended his hand for her to take it, inviting, and although he was not smiling, he didn’t look that scary to her anymore.

She took his hand and stepped inside the building, exhaling heavily and shaking because she was really cold.  
“You must be freezing. Hang on there, I think I have a spare jacket somewhere.” 

Claudette nodded, folding her arms on her chest, taking a moment to take a look at the guy. He was quite tall and not exactly white, more like asian but not totally asian either. He didn’t look too clean: he had like a three day beard and his black hair was all messy, but she honestly find him really attractive.

“Here, there you go. You can take off your sweater and whatever you have below it and put this on, I’ll let your clothes dry by the fire.”, he said while handing her the jacket.  
“Thanks.”, she replied while shyly grabbing it. Jake curved his lips and did a simple nod, while turning around to give her privacy and walking to the fireplace to make sure that the fire was still strong enough to warm the place. Claudette finished changing her clothes and slowly walked over to Jake, holding her sweater and t-shirt.  
“I’m Jake, by the way. Jake Park” he said while taking in his own hands Claudette’s wet clothes and proceeding to hang them in a chair so they could dry.  
“Nice to meet you, Jake. I’m Claudette Morel.” She quickly introduced herself. “ I didn’t know that there was people living here in the woods.”  
Jake chuckled. “Ah, no, I don’t live here. I go to the college nearby too, I just come here when I get really tired of life in general.”  
“Oh, I see…” she said awkwardly, still processing the situation. Being locked up in a refuge in the forest with this cute stranger (she was not even used to be around any man to be honest) and wearing his clothes was making her more nervous and awkward than ever. “So… what do you study?”  
Jake noticed the awkwardness and found it quite flattering, giving him some confidence. He found her attractive too, but he was much more harder to read. “Civil engineering. But I don’t really like it. I just do it because my father makes me to.”  
“I’m sorry to hear that. What would you like to study instead, if you don’t mind me asking?” she said softly while taking a seat next to him and the fire.  
“Honesty, I don’t know. I don’t get along with anyone in my family except for my mom, and I’m a lonely wolf. So I guess, any activity that implies being by myself most of the time.”  
“Like… an astronaut?” she said jokingly, making him giggle.  
“Uhm, that might be too extreme. I prefer to be around nature, like here and now.”  
“I like that too. I don’t socialize a lot either. Most of my human interaction is virtual, on my internet blog”, she scratched the back of her head, smiling nervously. “That’s where I publish my recent scientific findings and answer botany questions.”  
“Oh, right, I almost forgot about that, you said you’re botanist. That’s so cool! You must be around nature all the time.” he said, genuinely interested.  
Claudette smiled warmly, excited to find someone who actually thinks that what she does is cool. “Yes, well, when I’m not locked up writing essays, I’m in the nature. Today I was studying the growing cycle of the secuoya and how it its life cycle contributes in the wild nature, the animals that surround it...” She started explaining to him, talking for several minutes after. At some point, she turned her look to Jake, finding that he was staring at her with all his focus on her words, feeling suddenly overwhelmed. Her cheeks where probably red, so she had to turn her face around quickly to hide it. She excused herself. “I’m sorry, I’m probably boring you with all this nerd talk.”  
“Not at all. I like that you’re passionate about what you do. I legit thought that little hearts where going to be visible in your eyes any time soon.”  
If she didn’t blush before, she was for sure blushing now. She couldn’t contain the smile, and neither contain herself to direct that smile to him. Her smile must have been contagious, because he found himself smiling to her as well, taking the time to actually look at Claudette for the first time.  
She was a tiny young woman, and by her brown skin, black curly hair and soft features, she looked kinda jamaican, but it was probably her parents or grandparents the ones who were from that country. Her accent was not american, but not jamaican either.  
“Do I know you from somewhere?” she asked after a couple of minutes of complete silence, taking a closer look at him. He shook his head slowly, shrugging, but she narrowed her eyes when it suddenly clicked it. She know remembered.

\---  
He was at a party that she went with her cousin Alicia when she came to visit her family in the United States like 5 years ago.  
She saw him in a corner, drinking with like three or four girls around, all trying to flirt with him. He didn’t look that interested, but went with the flow anyways. As like now, she found him really cute and her cousin totally noticed.  
“Claud, you need to stop staring at that boy, he’s gonna notice.” Alicia laughed, catching Claudette’s attention.  
“I don’t know what are you talking about.” She said annoyed, looking away and drinking more of whatever shit she was drinking, starting to feel dizzy.  
“I’m talking about ya drinking some more and showing those hoes who’s the most stunning bitch here. Go and talk to that fella, like, now.” Alicia said while grabbing Claudette by her shoulders, while Claudette was shaking her head like crazy.  
“Me? The most awkward little thing in the fucking world? I have no freakin’ chance. Besides, I will never see him again!”  
“That’s the whole point. You can do whatever you want without regretting shit because you won’t see him again! Anyways, you won’t be getting far dressed like that…” Alicia looked up and down at her cousin disapprovingly “You don’t come to a party showing up in jeans and t-shirt. I can help with that, follow me.”  
Without any warning, Alicia pulled Claudette with her and took her to her house that was just a block away, making her change her clothes to, like she called, “nerd but sexy chocolate beauty outfit”, which consisted of very tight grey skirt, a black embroidered body, a black velvet choker around her neck and a pair of short black boots. She left her glasses on because she couldn’t see anything without them but after Alicia did her make up, she looked at the mirror and thought she looked amazing.  
“I don’t think that boy will resist you. Go get him girl.” Alicia said in Claudette’s ear, making them both laugh.  
When they arrived at the party again, she kind of got drunk. This was not her at all, but there was no way that she was going to have the nerve to talk to that boy any other way. She looked everywhere and finally found him, dancing with a random chick who was trying to get some, but by the way he was looking anywhere but her, Claudette figured he wasn’t really into her. Then, Jake looked at Claudette. And when he did, he couldn’t look away. She was absolutely beautiful, but she was way to far away from him and this woman he was with won’t leave him alone.  
When she noticed he was looking at her, she felt a rush of adrenaline. “This is my chance. Do it, now.” Claudette thought to herself while heading towards him, and she took chance of Jake’s and the girl’s drunkenness to gently push her into another hot guy, making them think that they called each other’s attention, and to her surprise, it worked. The random chick fell for it and directed her attention to the new guy, leaving Jake alone with drink in hand.  
“Hey.” Jake said simply to Claudette, feeling dizzy but excited to finally be with someone who actually caught his eye.  
Claudette was enough drunk to not be able to think properly, but her emotions were intact. She was so nervous, yet so attracted to this guy, that she acted like she never did before, wrapping her arms around and pulling his body really close to hers, as they were intimate and knew each other for a long time.  
“Hey, I really like you. Wanna dance with me?” she said in his ear seductively, and although he was really confused with the whole situation, he nodded and they moved where everyone was dancing, and it wasn’t long until they were making out. Unfortunately, she was so drunk that she didn’t remember what happened next. All she remember is being carried by Alicia back to her house and throwing up all the alcohol the morning after.  
\---

“Claudette? You okay?” Jake said, concerned, after a long awkward silence after she asked if she knew him. When he snapped her out of it, she blushed heavily. Now that she remembered all of that, she felt extremely embarrassed.  
“Yes, I just... “ she said looking away, laughing nervously. “I know where I know you from, but you probably won’t remember and I’m, I’m so embarrassed, oh my God…” she added speaking really quickly, making him tilt his head, amused at her nervousness. He gently pulled her face to look at it and stared at her, trying to remember. Claudette was now freaking out, so much that she legit thought she was going to melt.  
Then, Jake remembered as well and opened his mouth in disbelief. “No way! Girl, I’ve tried to know who the hell you were for months, nobody knew nothing about you! I wasn’t from the neighborhood anyways, so I never could figure out who threw out that party and ask them for more information.” he exclaimed, making Claudette open her eyes exaggeratedly.  
“Really?” she asked starting to feel out of herself, trying to look down, but he won’t let her.  
“Really. You came to me and ate my lips like a goddamn candy but you didn’t deign to tell me your name. You looked so damn beautiful that night, I was hooked. I’m actually pissed that you didn’t look for me after.” He said with a weird mixture of sadness and excitement.  
“It’s not that… the truth is that I was not from there, I lived in Montreal, Canada, that’s where I’m from. I was visiting my family and my cousin Alicia made me go to that party, and then I saw you and I had like this instant massive crush on you, so I got all drunk to have the nerve to just talk to you but I was so drunk that I didn’t even ask your name or give you my phone number, I’m so embarrassed…” Claudette was starting to hyperventilate and finally looked away from Jake, not being able to get herself together anymore. The worst part is that she couldn’t run away.  
Jake heart just was pounding out of his chest. He didn’t know who the hell was this girl, but still she was causing him so many emotions. He was starting to feel like that night at the party: dizzy, expectating, hooked on her, confused, he didn’t know what he was feeling at the sudden revival of this memory.  
He got closer to her and said in a really low voice, almost whispering: “You could give me your number now and make up for your error.”  
Claudette freezed when she felt the short distance between them. Who the hell was this boy and why did he make her so nervous? Can this situation be more bizarre?  
She turned her head and looked at him shyly, blushing.  
“You know, you didn’t need to change clothes that night for me to notice you.” he said softly, looking into her eyes deeply.  
Claudette was hypnotized by his look, but still managed to ask: “You noticed that?”  
“Yes. I also saw you checking me out more than once, but believe it or not, I didn’t know how to reach you.”  
Claudette couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She even considered the possibility for all of it to be a dream.  
“What are you talking about? You had like four girls all over you.”  
“Yeah, but I didn’t like them. They said they liked me because I was mysterious and because I…” he suddenly interrupted himself, looking uncomfortable.  
“You what?”  
“Because some girl I slept with said I was good in bed.”  
Claudette raised her brows, suddenly so nervous that she started to giggle like crazy.  
“What?? Is it that unbelievable??” Jake said, suddenly losing his confidence. Claudette thought about the question.  
“No, actually, no…” she said while visibly checking him out, her eyes wandering all over his chest and strong arms. Jake smirked.  
“So, like I said, I was not interested in any of them, but when I saw you…” he interrupted himself again, looking at her lips not even trying to be discrete. “I really wanted to kiss you, but I also really wanted to get to know you.”  
“Well, at least we did the first.”, she said while getting a little closer to him, shortening the distance really slowly.  
Both of them felt the same urge than they felt when they were younger. The difference now was that there was no alcohol, no loud music, no other girls.  
“I say we resume it where we left it.” Jake said staring into her eyes one last time before closing the gap between them and kissing her slowly and seductively. In the same way that she did the last time, she wrapped her arms around his neck, returning the kiss eagerly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are you interested in reading smut? Say yay or nay in the comments.  
> I say YAY.


	3. Morning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter narrates the first sexual encounter between Jake and Claudette.  
> Spoiler alert: Jake is a sweet adorable gentleman and Claudette is more freaky that we all expected.  
> At your command, here's some smut.   
> Song of the chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjbEBvAbsXc

All was happening way too fast. She was so confused, yet so thrilled.  
This was not a common behavior for her. The last time she spent time with a man in a remotely similar way was a couple years ago and it wasn’t a even good experience. She kind of got into it because she was starting feeling desperate for attention, but all what that guy wanted was to get into her pants. That’s how dudes were like these days. Always rushing her into doing things that she didn’t want want to do.  
However, she felt different this time. Jake moved so carefully, like he was asking her permission every time he made a new move, and instead of backing up, she mirrored his actions in return.  
To be honest, she freaked out every time that a guy wanted to get to third base with her. She always felt like if she crossed that line with them, they will get bored the morning after and move on, so she dumped them before that could happen. She felt that that’s what was all they wanted, and she was probably was right.  
All she really wanted was a true connection. While growing up, the only person who truly understood her was her dad. He was the only that never pushed her into things that she didn’t want to do. Her mother, in the other hand, was her haunting nightmare. Janette Morel never comprehended why Claudette could never be a normal girl, why did she never bring a friend home, much less a boyfriend. Claudette was never into girly things and Janette couldn’t handle that, so she always treated her daughter as she was an alien and gave up on her eventually. Claudette convinced herself that she didn’t care about her lack of empathy and love, but the truth was that Janette’s behavior left a permanent scar on her that affected in a negative way every human interaction she tried to have in the future.  
She really cared about people, and she had a few friends that she truly loved, but it was really hard for her to open up to most of the world. She was always kind to everyone, but she didn’t really trust anyone at the same time. How could she if she couldn’t even trust in her mother?  
Socializing became harder than ever when her father passed away during her first year in college.The only thing that kept her from falling apart was developing a friendship with who later became her most dear friends, Meg Thomas and Dwight Fairfield.She met them while participating as volunteers in a college activity and they were assigned together to form a team. At first, they didn’t seem to have a lot in common: Meg was professional athlete and Dwight was into politics. The first days, as usual, Claudette was not willing to open up to them, but Meg liked a good challenge, so she put all her effort in becoming her friend. Dwight was born a leader, so it was natural for him to find the ways for a team to work. Claudette learned to appreciate their efforts and let them walk into her life eventually. Soon after that, she couldn’t imagine a life without them.   
But as for her romantic life, there was not much to say than that it was a complete failure.  
But then, there she was. Jake triggered on her emotions that she didn’t feel for a person before. Curiosity, was that it?  
He intrigued her. She wanted to get to know all of him as he was part of her scientific research. That curiosity was making her feel like she was high, not even in control of herself, but yet so willing to give up on that control. She never wanted to be intimate with anyone, but he was pushing that button on her.  
She didn’t even back up when he smoothly guided her to his bed, not breaking their kiss in the process, sitting in the mattress while slowly caressing her back.However, he pulled away and gave her a serious look, placing a hand on her cheek.

“We don’t have to do anything tonight if you don’t want to.”

Claudette never heard those words from any other man before. That’s when she knew that could trust him and it was safe to open up. That has never happened in a romantic context to her before, but she recognized the signs when she saw them.  
She slowly moved one of her hands to his chest while the other went to his hair, locking her fingers in his hair while her lips approached to his to be just a few inches close.

“I don’t want you to stop. But in all honesty, I never did this before, so I’m really nervous.”, she confessed. She looked at him in the eyes and the look she saw nearly melted her heart. He was smiling reassuringly and warmly, understanding.  
“I’ll tell you what. We’ll go really slow and as far as you want to get. You can stop me at any time. I won’t judge you, I won’t complain. I will just let you be. So, feel free to be yourself tonight and I’ll try to make you enjoy this moment as much as I can…”, he explained while gently lying her down.  
She couldn’t stop thinking about how different he was from the other guys who tried to sleep with her. He was such a gentleman, so gentile and yet so manly to the point that she already wanted to take her clothes off. Anyways, she still was scared. He looked so experimented. and she had zero background in this field. What if she did everything wrong and he loses his patience? What if he was just like the other guys who tried to play with her heart? What if he regretted it all the morning after?

She decided to trust her gut and enjoy the moment.

Jake noticed that Claudette was nervous, so he moved with caution, letting himself put some of his weight on her and slowly kissing her lips, testing her. To his surprise, she doubled the bet and deepened the kiss, burying her fingers on his hair like she was making sure that he didn’t regret this closeness.  
Taking that as a sign to continue, he moved to her neck, tracing soft kisses on her skin.  
She has been kissed on the neck before, but this time felt different. Her stomach was feeling a rush of emotions with every touch he gave to her. A soft moan escaped her lips and she felt him smiling against her skin. She was feeling pure ecstasy and he was just getting started.  
Shyly, she moved a hand to the zipper of his jacket and moved it down so he could take it off. He was wearing a simple white t-shirt, but she could see his chest through it. He was very muscular and in a good shape, but she could already tell that by just looking at his arms.  
He quickly discarded the piece of clothing and removed his t-shirt himself, revealing his naked upper body. Claudette was in shock. How could someone so sexy be remotely interested in her? Her shock escalated when she felt his skin pressing against her body again.   
She pressed her palms firmly on his back and let her hands wander everywhere. He was so warm. No, actually… hot. His skin was hot. Did that actually mean that she could turn him on? It was so hot that almost made her palms hurt.  
Now, the jacket that she borrowed from him was starting to annoy her. She wanted, no, needed to feel his skin against hers.  
Jake felt a rush of heat in his stomach and chest as he felt her hands on her naked back, caressing every spot they could find. He was enjoying every second of it, and let out a soft whine when she pulled them away. Curious about the reason behind her action, he noticed that now she was the one taking of her jacket, revealing nothing more than a black bra below that didn't cover her breasts entirely. When they both felt each other's skin against theirs, their lips crashed together again like metal and magnet.  
This time, when he went down her neck with his lips, he got more rough, occasionally nibbling it while her hands got a little more curious on his body, grabbing his ass while he licked the curve of her neck. Judging by the growing bulge in his pants, she figured that he was appreciating it. However, some seconds later, that part of his body was out of her reach as he moved further down to her collarbone, licking slowly. She got the message: he was asking her permission to make the next move, and that made her beyond excited. Encouraging him, she grabbed his head by his hair and seductively pushed him down a little more until he was facing her cleavage.  
If he wasn’t hard before, he for sure was now. He quickly sent a knowing look to Claudette and he swiftly undid the clasp of her bra; she responded by letting out a long dreamy sigh, closing her eyes softly. That was all the encouragement that he really needed to proceed.

When he removed the piece of clothing, he took a few seconds to caress her tummy and contemplate her body. She was absolutely gorgeous: her chocolate skin was so sweet, and her breasts were the perfect size, round and perfectly firm. He couldn’t resist her no more, and without further warning he leaned in and took one of her nipples between his lips, sucking really slowly.  
Claudette couldn’t help to let out a moan and started feelings sensations on her body that she didn’t feel before. Something was dripping from her private parts, and if it wasn’t for the fact that she read and heard that this was a common reaction, she would freak out. No other guy ever made her ‘wet’, as other girls called it.  
Yet, there she was, with her panties already soaking wet and with a hot man that she thought that she only could dream of, straddling her and sucking on her tits, causing uncontrollable sounds to come out of her throat.  
Taking a pause on what he was doing, he momentarily moved up to brush his lips against hers, placing one of his hands on her cheek,  
“Did anybody tell you how beautiful and sexy you are when you moan like that?”, he whispered with a husky voice that sent a shiver through Claudette’s spine.  
“I’ve never moaned before.”, she replied while locking her eyes on his, controlling her impulse to capture his lips right away.  
That answer did the trick for him. Shit, this really was her first time doing this. He needed to make this special. No, not only special. He needed to be her first and best that she will ever have. He was going to make sure that if she ever tried to search for other guy, she just wouldn’t want another. No one was going to love her better than him.

“Then I’ll make sure you catch up on all the time lost.” He replied confidently, finalizing his sentence with a passionate kiss, exploring her mouth with his tongue like only a professional would do. That only was probably enough to send Claudette over the edge, but now her expectations were high.  
To let him know that it was okay to keep going on, she shyly moved her fingers to the zipper of his pants, undoing it carefully. Taking note on that, he pulled away from the kiss to remove them and in the next moment he was on top of her again. He looked down to her pants, asking a silent permission to mirror their actions of some seconds ago. She quickly nodded and he carefully removed her pants, making sure to not be too rough or look to desperate. 

Now only their underwear was keeping them away to totally feel each other, but Claudette was already impressed with what she was seeing.  
She never felt any erotic urge or attraction to her previous lovers, but now it was a whole different story. She looked at the bulge under his waist and let out a long sigh of admiration. She never thought that she could actually get excited by looking at a dick, but there she was, wishing that those boxers would just disappear.  
Jake caught her staring and smirked, leaning in her ear to susurrate: “Not so fast, love. I’m going to make you cum twice before you even feel it.”  
Claudette blushed hard and opened her mouth to make some lame excuse at how she was not staring, but he didn’t gave her any rest. He started to lick and nibble the lobe of her ear, making her shake under him. To demonstrate that she was really enjoying it, she wrapped her legs around his, and he took the encouragement and resumed the previous activity, this time being more passionate and going harder on his sucking and nibbling on her tits, grabbing both with his hands, feeling them with his fingertips and pressing them against her skin, earning more moans and whimpers from her.  
Eventually, his hands got more curious and caressed her tights. He lowered to press his lips against them, planting sloppy kisses all over her skin. She locked her fingers in his hair once again, messing with some strands, and he gently grabbed her panties by an edge, waiting a few seconds to make sure he was allowed to continue. She placed one of her hands on top of his and guided it, slowly pulling her underwear down.  
There was no words to explain what Jake felt when he saw her naked for the very first time, allowing him to be in control when she was such in a vulnerable position. She was truly surrendering to him and he couldn’t feel more grateful and honored. She looked so stunning, so hypnotizing, so passionate, so beautiful. She remembered him of a rose, to be honest. From that moment, he decided that if she let him, he would protect this delicate flower at all costs.  
Deciding to start very carefully, he softly liked her thighs moving up to her entrance, easily locating her clit. He teased it with his tongue, moving his hands to cup her ass firmly.

Oh lord, what was that magic? Where did all those sparks come from? Claudette mind was all over the place, and that was something she was not used to. She always was so focused, but now her head was a mess. She never allowed herself to get on her feelings, but tonight nothing mattered more to her than cherishing this moment.  
.  
If she had to describe the sensation in some way, she’d say that every time he hit that spot she felt electricity, but it felt a lot better than that. It felt hot and cold, painful and pleasurable at the same time. He was tasting her so boldly, so experiencedly, hitting all the right spots. With each minute that passed, she felt all those emotions more and more strongly.   
Letting out a particularly loud moan, she collapsed for a moment, feeling a explosion of sensations. When she could catch her breath after several minutes of panting, she figured what it was: she climaxed for the first time in her life.  
Jake gave her no rest, no time to think anymore. While she was recovering from her first orgasm, he was kissing her whole body so tenderly and romantically that he didn’t actually allow her to go back to a normal state. She didn’t even notice when he sat up in the bed and grabbed her by her waist, making her sit on his dick. His back was against the wall for support and he didn’t wait any more time to get his lips back to work, licking her tits again like it was the most delicious thing he had ever tasted. His hands were now strongly holding her waist, making her rock back, forth, up and down, rubbing her clit against him really slowly but with conviction, hitting that sweet spot again. She was so sensitive that it didn’t take long for her to climax again. They had their hands all over each other and there was not turning back from that point.  
Jake carefully grabbed her again and made her sit on the bed to end what they had started. He stood up and finally removed his underwear, revealing his full erection. Claudette was mesmerized by the look. She wasn’t even sure if she could handle another orgasm, but she was willing to find out.

“Oh, wow…” she softly whispered while staring at his length. Jake smirked once again, approaching to her and laying on the bed next to her.  
“Enough staring, honey. Come and get it if you want it.”, he said, inviting. ”Here, try this…”, he said while pulling her on top, finally allowing her to feel his dick against her pussy. He guided her arms to both sides of his head and moved her legs to surround his bottom body. “Now, you gently rock back and forth, and if you feel ready…”, he added while guiding her body by her hips, teaching her how to move, “you can get my dick into you. But that’s only if you feel comfortable with it. As I said before, I won’t rush you. But if you decide you wanna do that, I’ll put on a condom so we can be safe”, he finalized, locking gazes with Claudette.  
How could he be so perfect? She barely knew him, but she already felt like she was falling for him.  
She thought about what he said. Was she scared? Yes. She was really afraid that it would hurt like hell. Was she going to back up now? She didn’t think so. She wanted him inside her now.  
After some minutes of rocking, she decided she was ready for some riding. She carefully grabbed his length to let him know that she was willing to continue. After he put the condom on it, she pushed his length against her entrance really slowly. She was not going to lie, it did hurt, and a lot, actually. Fortunately, he made sure to distract her with long passionate kisses, and before she even noticed, he was fully inside her.  
Now, his arms were around her in a warm embrace, and their bodies continued to move in synch, up and down. Some minutes later, it was his time to climax, but he waited until she reached her third to allow his own release. Jake was panting and moaning just as much as Claudette, and she thought that it was the sexiest thing she ever saw.  
They ended their passionate session with a long, loving kiss. He pulled her close to his chest and covered their bodies with a blanket that would keep them warm the whole night.  
Just before falling asleep, he gently kissed her forehead and told her that he didn’t want this to be a one-time thing. She said that she didn’t want that either, and that’s when she knew: none of them were going to back up in the morning.


	4. Cancelled

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there! I apologize in advance for the short length of this chapter, but this might be the best for me to be able to give you frequent updates and to also not lose my inspiration while I need to fulfill my obligations as the adult I sadly am ;-;  
> With that being said, this chapter digs a little more in the friendship between Meg, Dwight, and Claudette and Jake as an official couple.  
> Also, Meg and Claud are friendship goals.  
> Song of the chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vri3ekyiC6U

Meg was heartbroken, again. Claudette and Dwight couldn’t take this behavior anymore. They didn’t understand why someone so wonderful as her best friend let herself be dragged onto this loophole of being played on over and over again. They honestly lost count on how many restless nights they shared together, just wiping Meg’s tears. The only thing that has changed was that now Jake was there to also be part of the pity party.  
There they were, three people around the redhead. Claudette combing her hair sweetly, Dwight gently squeezing her shoulder and Jake unceasingly passing her some tissues.  
“I just can’t believe it, I…” Meg said, sobbing uncontrollably. “How long has he been lying to me? How many times did I forgive him already?”  
“Ten.” Dwight said simply, earning a deathly look from Claudette. “Jeez, sorry, she asked and I counted them…”, he added with a low voice, frowning at Claudette. It didn’t matter though, Meg wasn’t even listening.  
“I could forgive when he forgot my birthday, when he didn’t show up at my tennis game at the finals, when he didn’t show up to our anniversary, but this, this I can’t forgive…”, Meg said while burying her face in her hands.  
There were really just a few things that made Claudette angry. One of them was seeing her best girlfriend in the world cry. But she wasn’t really angry, she was furious. She always knew that Meg was wasting her time with that boyfriend of hers and told her multiple times, but she wouldn’t listen. She wanted to make her listen this time.  
She lifted her friend’s chin gently and wiped her tears with her thumbs, looking at her very serious.  
“Listen to me.”, she called her attention. Jake and Dwight looked at Claudette with eyes wide open. “Fuck him. Fuck everything he ever said to you. You know what? He did you bad, but you’re the baddest in the room. He.Is.Cancelled.”, she added, talking slowly and clearly. In one year of relationship, Jake never saw Claudette swear.  
Meg smiled sadly, wrapping her arms around her friend. Claudette caressed her hair, continuing to talk. “I’m gonna say this again and I want you to listen for good now. He ain’t shit, he isn’t worth it. You’re too gorgeous to even let one single tear drop from your eyes for someone like him. You don’t need nobody. You’re perfect and if you do want somebody, I bet dudes will have to wait in line.”. Dwight and Jake smiled at Claudette.  
“Thanks babygirl…”, Meg whispered, resting her head on Claudette’s shoulder. “But in all honesty, I spent too many years on this failure of relationship. I’m not used to be single, and for what I can see, there are like only two decent guys in the world.” she said while casually waving her hand at the two men in the room.  
“Well, as far as I know Dwight is still single…”, Jake said and winked at his girlfriend, making Claudette giggle. Dwight turned his head to Jake in shock, and Meg just laughed.  
“Yeah, I don’t think we are a match, but if we reach to our third decade of life and didn’t find love yet, I’m making him marry me. I’m just too worried that he can’t keep up.”, Meg answered feeling more lively, even waving her body sexily. Dwight didn’t know how to even react, so he just raised his brow and crossed his arms. “What about my consent to marry you? Isn’t that important?”, he asked, waving his hand.  
“Uhm, do you even need to think about it? Just take a look at this single motherfucking queen. She’s a ten out of ten.” Claudette replied, kissing Meg’s head, making her friend giggle. Dwight shook his head, chuckling. She didn’t really look like a queen with her make-up all messed up, but he did know that she was awesome, she just made bad choices.  
“Baby, stop swearing so much, it’s making me horny…” Jake said recklessly, raising his brows with a smirk so his friends and his lover could get distracted from the sad motive of the meeting. Meg whistled at Jake and Claudette.  
“Gosh, go get a room…”, Dwight said, cringing.  
“Okay, we can just leave you and Meg alone, you can try to cheer her up.”, Jake replied, getting up and grabbing Claudette’s hand, ready to leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, please bear with me those who are waiting for the drama and terror of being pulled into the entity's world. That's definitely coming, but I want it to be as well written as possible.  
> Love to you all<3


	5. Free as a bird

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jake is free, no one can tame him. No one will ever tell him what to do, ever again.  
> It starts right here people! I'm just gonna say that.  
> Song of the chapter: https://youtu.be/ODIvONHPqpk?t=23

“I expected nothing from you and you still find your way to disappoint me.” Brody said coldly to his younger brother, staring him with a expression of pure disgust. Gerald Park chose to remain silent, which was even more alarming that when he had anything to say.  
“I disappointed you?”, Jake asked rhetorically, pointing at himself. “Then that means I’m doing something well. I’m over with you, over with Park Constructions, and over with this family.”, he finished in an angry tone, his mother looking at him with pure concern.  
“Son, you need to think about your future… how do you plan to maintain your family when you and Claudette get married? What if you have children? How do you plan to earn a living to feed them, to provide them the education they will need…?”, his mother asked worriedly, holding her chest as if it was going to explode because of the angst. “Are you planning on leave everything on Claudette’s shoulders?”  
“I’ll work hard, I’ll make my own name, I don’t need any easy spot on some horrible company that I earned only because I’m Gerald Park’s son.”, he replied while looking at his brother with the most cold-hearted look. “You always do and say what he commands you. You never had a personality. You think you are a man because you have a degree and a position that you could have never earned by yourself. You are just another Park product.” He added while looking down at Brody with contempt. “I am glad that I disappoint you. I never want to be called your brother anymore.”, he finished, now directing his gaze to his father. “And as for you… you should be ashamed. You will remember this moment the day that you are old and miserable, the day that mom finally gets tired of you and Brody doesn’t even care about you anymore because you are no longer useful to him. If you are lucky, he will let you live your last days in a sad geriatric while he spends all the money you earned in women and gambles. Only then, you will regret to have been such a terrible father. Only then, you might understand which should have been your priorities. I’m done with you both.”

“Get out of this house, and never come back again.”, Gerald said with an oddly calm voice, not even looking at Jake.  
“Father…”, the younger son said ceremoniously, “I’ve been long gone.”

That was the last time that he saw his progenitor. He grabbed his baggage and crossed the door frame, looking back at his mother as a silent promise to keep in touch with her, but only once though. Outside, his girlfriend was waiting for him with her back leaned on the car and arms folded, looking at the scene with pure concern. She knew that Jake’s relationship with his family was complicated, but she never thought that he would take it that far. When he told her that he was going to drop college, she was heartbroken.

Thinking about not seeing him around the campus anymore, and he not being part of the picture those afternoons just sitting in the grass with Meg and Dwight, not enjoying a coffee just before an early class in the morning … she was going to miss all of that. But she also knew that he was free as a bird. No one could tame him, not even her. It was hard for her to learn that he really needed his space time to time and that he often needed to be alone and cut himself from the world, but she understood. He was honest to her about it from the very beginning and she learned to love that side of him too.

She knew that now that Jake was on his own now and he would have to look for a job to earn a living, so she helped him in the search, unceasingly browsing in the internet for job opportunities and making a lot of calls. Eventually, he found a job in a local farm in the outskirts of the city, very close to the woods. With the money he had saved, he bought some construction materials and built a house in that zone of the city.  
At least, it was really fun to help him build that house. Claudette didn’t have any experience at all in the construction field, but Jake was a great teacher. Soon, she was able to remember all the names of each tool and know how to use them properly, but she enjoyed a lot more to set the decorations. They even hung a few pictures on the wall, and one of them two was on the center. Of course, she was the person in charge to set the garden and take care of the plants and flowers they planted, but she also taught him the gardening basics.  
During the weekdays, it was almost impossible to have time to see each other, but they talked over the phone every night for at least two hours for months now, and Claudette always visited him on the weekends.  
However, one night, he didn’t pick up the phone. She called once, twice, thrice, but he was just not answering. She thought that maybe he stayed at work more hours that day, but he didn’t reply her calls in the morning either, and that’s when she got truly worried. She was so concerned that she even skipped her classes to take the next bus to the outskirts. When she got there, she went straight to the farm and asked about Jake. The people that lived in there said that they haven’t seen him since yesterday when he finished his workday and were expecting him to report to work an hour ago. She rushed to his house that was 1.5 miles from there, exhausted of running but desperate to know what was happening with her love. He was nowhere to be seen in the house or its close proximities, and a really dark sensation overcame her. Beside the door, on the ground, she saw a very small box. In fact, it was a ring box covered in dirt and dust, and inside, a beautiful shining ring. She put the ring box in her pocket, thinking about if it was for her.

She felt deep inside that something was wrong. There was not time to think about the ring.

She saw footprints in the ground that were a size that was compatible with the size of Jake’s feet, so she started to follow the trail that led directly into the woods.  
She could swear that she was able to hear her own heartbeat with each step she took, the fear starting to take possession of her mind. She wasn’t even paying attention to her surroundings, only Jake mattered now. But she got disoriented.  
When she looked up, she didn’t recognize anything that she saw. The trees were much more taller, and the sun didn’t pass through the treetops. A dark fog covered the ground beneath her feet and no sound was present.

Something was very wrong.

“J-Jake…?”, her voice was trembling.  
“Claudette?!” she heard the voice of her lover in the distance.  
“LOVE, I’M RIGHT HERE, WHERE ARE YOU?” She screamed at the top of her lungs and she suddenly saw the fog arise from the ground, making her panic. She didn’t hear a response from Jake and she blacked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for leaving kudos and reading the story! Your feedback and comments are really appreciated too <3


	6. Can I?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there lovelies! I actually had so much fun writing this chapter I cannot believe it.  
> Spoiler alert: Meg is a horny mess LOL  
> I hope you enjoy the chapter! If you do, please leave your feedback and comments<3
> 
> Song of the chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3flnqowdGzA

_“Hi there! You’ve reached Claudette’s Morel line. I can’t answer you right now, but please leave a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible!”_

Beeeeep.

Meg sighed and mouthed “fuck” to herself. She already tried to call her best friend five times.

“Yo, where you at? I reeeeeeally need you right now. I’ve thinking a lot this week, I’ve been holding up some things on my chest, I just need to blurt it all out of my mind. I need someone to talk to and Dwight is… not a viable option right now. Shit, girl, I’ve been all on my feelings… I really need to tell you about this, I can’t keep it secret anymore”, she slurred her last words, rolling her eyes to herself. “Please hit me right back, okay? I NEED HELP.”

Meg exhaled, heavily letting herself lean on the wall of her room. She mentally cursed at Jake because, from her perspective, he was the one to blame here. Due to him dropping college, Claudette was not around on weekends. That only meant one thing: she was alone with Dwight on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.  
“Fuck you Jake. And of course, you don’t pick up the phone either.” Meg said while looking at her reflection on the mirror, frowning when she remembered that she also spammed Jake with phone calls without getting an answer.

“Yep, this is totally your fault.”, she added while talking to herself, checking on her makeup. Ever since Jake joked about Dwight and Meg getting together the day that Meg broke up with her ex, things got really different between them. If Claudette and Jake hadn’t left them alone that night, nothing would have had happened.  
\--  
“I can’t believe they really left us.”, Dwight frowned.  
“I should be the one mad at them, but, it’s whatever…”, she said, shrugging it off.  
“Oh, yes, sorry, you’re right…”, Dwight answered with a sad look at her, “I know I’m not Claudette, but you know I’m always here for you.”, he said, slightly smiling at her. Meg poked Dwight’s cheek, trying to lighten the mood.  
“It’s okay you little dorky.”, Meg said, chuckling and wiping the tears that she had drop some minutes ago. “I like how in love they are. They give me hope and make me actually believe in love, even when I wasn’t lucky with it.”

Dwight gulped. He really felt bad for her. “As Claudette said, I think it won’t be long until you find someone else.”, he grinned at her while he got up to pour some wine in a cup and hand it to her. She accepted it contently. “There are a lot of guys that would like to date you, you know…”, he assured, looking down for a very short moment with an expression that Meg couldn’t quite read. He also poured wine for himself and drank a long sip, and she thought that it was really odd to see him drink that way, but she let it pass.

“I actually don’t know. Mind to share some information?”, she asked while tilting her head with a smirk. Dwight was amazed at how quickly she could forget, at least momentarily, that she recently found out that her boyfriend cheated on her.  
“Uhm, I overheard in the halls some dudes from the soccer team talking about how hot you are.”  
“Meh, they are all douchebags. Besides, the fact that they find me hot doesn’t mean they want to date me”, she sighed, getting up and casually sitting on her desk while sipping more wine. “I don’t plan on getting laid with any of those lame dudes any time soon.”

Dwight sighed with relief. He didn’t even know why he was relieved.

“But I will miss getting laid for sure…”, Meg added, maybe too sincerely.  
“Jeez, Megan. Too much information.”, Dwight replied, laughing awkwardly.  
“What? Don’t be like that. When was the last time you had sex? I mean, did you even had sex after you broke up with Danielle? I bet you miss it too.”, she questioned, frowning at him. Dwight thought that she had a point.  
“Well…”, he started, his face getting red.  
Meg chuckled. “You’re so cute when you blush.”, she stated. Such affirmation was maybe a little too bold to say to your male best friend, but she blamed it on the wine. Dwight looked away, but he was smiling. She could sense it.

“Are you trying to flirt with me now?”. Dwight definitely drank less wine than her.  
“Hmm… no…”, Meg slurred, casually tiptoeing Dwight’s back playfully with her fingers. “I’m just saying…”. Was she drunk already? Probably. He turned to her again, tilting his head at her with a questioning look.  
“What?”, she asked simply, as her behavior was totally normal.  
“Does this have to do with Jake said?”, he asked narrowing his eyes. Meg shook her head frantically. “What is all of that about?”  
“Nothing, Dwiiiiight… shut up and pour me some more wine already…”  
“No, I think that that was enough for now.”  
“Okay, I’ll do it myself!” she said while trying to pass through him and trying to grab the bottle, but he caught her by her waist, preventing her from getting fully drunk.  
“You’re such a party pooper…”, she rolled her eyes, trying to free herself from Dwight’s grasp. He was stronger than she thought. “I changed my mind. I’ll look for one of those soccer dudes and get laid tonight. If you excuse me...”

Dwight frowned at Meg, earning a smirk from her.

“Why are you smirking?”  
“Because you are frowning at me. You are jealousssssss.”  
“No, I am not.”  
“Yes, you are.”  
“Megan, stop it.”  
“Stop what?”  
“Stop playing with me.”

He finally let off of her waist, but this time she was the one grabbing him by his arm. It wasn’t a tight grip, it was more of a desperate, instinctive act.

“I am not. I do think you’re cute when you blush.”  
“I was not talking about that specifically, but you already know that, don’t you?”  
“I also think you’re cute when you wrinkle your nose when you think too hard, when you laugh about my stupid jokes… when…”  
“Meg…”  
“Yes?”

Silence. He stared at her for like seemed ages, trying to figure out if he was willing to fall for that. He thought that she was desperate for attention, but it was also really tempting.

“What do you want from me?”

That question really took her by surprise. She didn’t really know, she kind of was acting by pure instinct.

“I want…” she mumbled, getting closer to him, looking down at her grip in his arm, “...to forget about my ex and get laid with you.”

Now Dwight was took by surprise. He didn’t expect that amount of honesty.

“What about our friendship?” he asked carefully, letting her shorten the distance.  
“Nothing could ever change that. This is just physical, one time thing. I promise that I won’t talk to you about this ever again.”, she said while wrapping her arms around his neck, gently playing with a lock of his hair. Dwight finally released the tension that he was holding in his shoulders and sighed, wrapping his arms around her waist and leaning down to tentatively touch her lips with his. They locked gazes for a brief moment, and before he could even react, she captured his lips in a hot, heated kiss.

But no, it wasn’t a one time thing. It happened again, and multiple times. They decided to keep it secret, because it was just sex, right? However, their friendship was never the same. For a moment, she was thankful that Claudette was so oblivious and didn’t notice the tension between her friends.  
\--  
“You’re such an idiot… what did you get yourself into?” she asked to her reflection, to then stare at her phone. There were no news from her friends yet. “I can’t believe that you started to actually have feelings for Dwight, like for real? Out of all the men in the world?”

“Okay, it’s whatever. I will just… talk to him.”, she murmured while grabbing her phone and starting to type a text message.

To: Dwight F.  
_Hey, dorky… I would like to see you, can I? I just need to talk. Promise. I know you’ve been busy but I just really need to talk to you. Can you make it tonight?_

Okay. It was sent.

From: Dwight F.  
_Hi :-) Yes, sure. I’ll be right there in 20’. Are you sure it’s just to talk? I’m out of condoms lol_

Meg rolled her eyes, laughing.

To: Dwight F.  
_I am sure, haha. It’s kinda important, so… you know, hurry up._

Meg hurried to get changed and comb her hair, she couldn’t mess this up, so she really put all her effort to look as fine as possible. The twenty minutes of wait flew, and before she noticed, Dwight knocked on her door. She let out a long, nervous sigh and reached to the door handle, opening it to see Dwight smiling at her. If it wasn’t herself that she was talking to, she could have thought that she blushed.

“You look beautiful.”, he complimented her casually while coming in, not even expecting for her to invite him inside.  
“Well, thank you…”, she made a small bow, chuckling a little. Dwight sat on her bed, while she looked for a soda and then gave it to him.  
“Thanks!”, he said cheerfully, sipping it but not taking his eyes off her, expectating.  
“Yup, no problem…”, she said smiling but visible nervous, carefully sitting next to him. Dwight raised an eyebrow, smirking.  
“What is it? You’re acting weird, I mean, you didn’t even try to straddle me already…”, he asked, tilting his head playfully.  
“Shut up, asshole…”, she giggled, feeling a little less tense. “I called because I need to tell you something.”  
“Okay… so then, spill it out.”, he answered, letting his arms fall back on the bed, holding his body with his elbows. After a long silence that served her as preparation, she started to speak.  
“I was wrong when I told you that this… thing we have... wasn’t going to affect our friendship in any way. I think it clearly did.”, she started. “But… it didn’t affect it in a bad way for me, you know… I mean, yeah, how couldn’t I see it coming? I always wanna see you, I got too used to you. And though I really enjoy sleeping with you, I’m not meaning this in a sexual way…”, she sighed, looking at her own fingers while playing with them. “I guess what I’m tryna say is…”

Her phone ringed, suddenly interrupting her. She frowned. “Shit, I bet it’s Claudette, I tried to call her today and she didn’t pick it u…”  
“What? Who is it?” Dwight asked, sitting up.  
“It’s… Jake’s mom?”, she narrowed her eyes, surprised. She picked up the phone quickly.

“Hello, Mrs. Park?” Meg asked.  
“Hi, Meg. Sorry to disturb you, but have you seen Claudette today?”. Jake’s mother sounded worried.  
“Uhm, no. I have tried to call her many times today. I also called Jake, but I got no response… why?”. Now Meg was really concerned.  
“Jake didn’t report to work today. His boss said that Claudette went to the farm to look for him and never came back. He went to Jake’s house to look for them, but they were not in there either…”, she sighed over the phone, her voice trembling. “Megan, I’m really worried. I think something bad happened to them. I’m calling the police now.”

Meg teared up. No, not her friends. Please no.

After she told Dwight about the phone call, they agreed that they needed to get to the woods right away. They humped in his car and drove to Jake’s place, looking for their friends while yelling their names. They saw they footsteps on the ground and a storm was coming, what meant that they needed to hurry up before the rain erased the trail.

“Jake!”  
“Claudette!”

Meg and Dwight screamed at the top of their lungs, but they never got any response. At least, not until the fog consumed them to erase them permanently from the world they always knew.


	7. Heart of a darkness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there, lovelies! I'm sorry that I couldn't upload a chapter yesterday, I've been kinda busy with college! This is the first chapter where we will be able to catch a glimpse of the Entity's realm. I hope you are as excited as I am!  
> Also, our big boiiii the Trapper is introduced <3
> 
> Song of the chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1L7KQdtR8o

So, so dark. Jake was woken up by a sound that he used to hear in his house in the woods. Hundreds of eyes were watching him in the darkness, shining coldly. His body ached so bad, but his head was the one hurting the most. He didn’t recognize anything around him but that spine-chilling sound: crows. Why were there so many crows in the woods today? He wondered if he was dreaming, but the pain was too real.  
Then, he heard a heartbeat. At first, it was soft, distant. He wondered why in the earth would he able to hear that.  
The sound was getting more intense now. He didn’t realize that his breathing was more and more heavy with each second that passed, until now.Then, the realization: It was his own heartbeat that he was hearing.

Why could he hear his own heart? It was getting frantic.

_Closer, closer._

The sound was getting closer, even if it was coming from his own body. Nothing made sense.

A shadow. What was that?

_Heavy footsteps._

His heart was racing now and the sound of the beats were deafening.

Claudette. He saw her laying on the floor, unconscious, but before he could scream her name, the shadow approached to her slowly. It was a very tall… man? He wasn’t sure because his body was so disfigured that he barely looked human. The man/creature was carrying something made of metal that Jake couldn’t quite recognize until he was closer: it was a bear trap. Jake didn’t like this one bit. The creature was getting closer to the person that Jake cared the most.  
He couldn’t allow that thing to get any closer to her. He needed to act, fast. He needed to create a distraction.  
Jake saw a crow beside him and thought that if he could scare the bird to make noise, the creature would leave Claudette alone, at least the necessary time for him to carry her somewhere safe.  
He moved his hands towards the bird and shooed at it, but the animal didn’t respond. It looked like it was not scared of Jake. He even tried to pretend that he was going to kick the bird, but that didn’t work either. What was going on?  
The man grabbed Claudette as she was a sack of potatoes, carrying her over his shoulder. He started to walk towards the direction of a giant hook that only a butcher could have and Jake knew that the horrible creature was going to hang her in there as she was meat. He didn’t have any proof, he just knew it.  
Acting by pure instinct, he started running towards the hook, arriving a few seconds before the mysterious, disfigured man. Jake saw that some screws were loose and took the opportunity, forcing the hook and making it fall soundly to ground.  
An inhuman growl came out of the creature, but when Jake looked up at its face, he couldn’t see it because that thing was wearing a mask. A white, horrendous mask with the most sadistic smile he has ever seen. The eyes behind it were looking at him, sending a cold shiver through Jake’s spine. In a closer look, the man/thing was even more terrifying. He was wearing overalls and heavy boots, as those who are usually wore by people who perform heavy duty works. 

The hideous creature dropped the bear trap that he was carrying and moved his hand behind his back, revealing a giant machete. Jake’s eyes widened and he opened his mouth, but he couldn’t scream.  
Dropping Claudette to the ground as she was nothing, the man reached closer to Jake, and he started to run in response. He had no doubt in his mind: the creature was trying to murder them both. Tears started to fall from his eyes, but there was no time to look behind. He just run and run, but the creature was fast. It was getting closer to him, and at a certain point, Jake could hear its breathing. Then, the sound of a blade on flesh. The creature has just ripped off part of the side of Jake’s arm.

He tried to scream, but he just couldn’t.

“Megan, Megan, please wake up!” Dwight mumbled while shaking the redhead’s body. She opened her eyes with difficulty, groaning in pain. Dwight quickly covered her mouth with his hand, and Meg opened her eyes in horror until she realized it was a familiar face. However, that relief disappeared as soon as it came when he put his index finger above his lips, signaling her to be quiet and to not make any noise. Something was wrong.

Dwight helped Meg to sit up and then he made her crouch. They were hiding behind some bushes and trees. He had a look of pure fear and his hand trembled when he pointed ahead of them.  
Megan saw Claudette lying on the ground, and beside her, a giant bear trap. By instinct, the redhead attempted to stand up and go to help Claudette, but Dwight caught her by her wrist, shaking his head. He pointed to the right and what Meg saw shocked even her most resistant nerve. A spine chilling man was raising a huge machete in the air, pointing at another familiar face: Jake. He was lying on the ground, raising the palm of his hand to cover his face. The mysterious man was going to kill her friend.

Her head was hurting so much, but her brain was thinking fast. Next to the horrible creature, there was a heavy pallet made of wood, full of nails and spikes. She knew what she had to do.

She sprinted as she never did in her life, scaring off all the crows in the process. Dwight remained crouched in shock for a few seconds until he reacted. He needed to follow her.

“MEGAN!”, he screamed at her, and the horrendous monster turned around to see where the noises were coming from. Without further warning, the girl dropped the pallet in the man’s head, and Dwight grabbed Jake by his waist, helping him stand up and helping him to run the hell away. Meg ran away in the opposite direction and dragged Claudette’s unconscious body to cover, hiding behind some walls made of wood. She tilted her head to spy on the man with the machete and covered her own mouth to prevent herself from making any sound. The man with the hideous grin looked to both of his sides, but since he didn’t find anyone, he continued to walk in the direction that Jake and Dwight presumably took.

_"Dear Lord, please don’t let anything happen to them.” , she thought while sobbing silently._

She started to shake Claudette by her shoulders for like seemed hours. When she finally opened her eyes, she looked at Meg with a confused look. Mirroring Dwight’s actions, she quickly covered Claudette’s mouth and made the gesture to indicate that they needed to stay silent. She leaned to Claudette’s ear and whispered very, very softly.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but we’re in severe danger. A man tried to kill you while you were unconscious and now he’s looking for Jake and Dwight. We need to figure out how to get out of here, and fast.”


	8. Forever lost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi lovelies! In this chapter we get the first introduction to trials! Will they all make it out alive?
> 
> Song of the chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dsGqRaf3BI&list=PLa42IQisRdEVXwimZljx8qeZHe4YMkpWF&index=25

“I don’t know what’s going on, but we’re in severe danger. A man tried to kill you while you were unconscious and now he’s looking for Jake and Dwight. We need to figure out how to get out of here, and fast.”  
“What are you talking about…?” Claudette whispered back to Meg, looking around to only find darkness, crows and trees. “Why is it so dark? Where are we?” she questioned, sitting up while holding her head in pain. Meg quickly covered Claudette’s mouth with the palm of her hand.  
“Silence. He’s looking for us, and if he find us…”, Meg whispered in an even lower voice, looking at her side in pure emotional pain. “He nearly killed Jake, so as I said, we need to act fast. No time for explanations.”, she stated, looking around frantically to find a way out. Claudette’s eyes widened in panic. If Jake was in danger, she needed to pay attention.

When Meg’s sight locked in the far distance, Claudette followed her eyesight to discover what she was seeing: it was a giant gate. They both instantly knew that they needed to get closer and see if that was their way out. Meg pointed at the gate and gestured with her head to indicate that she was going in that direction. Claudette followed her closely, trying to be as silent as they possibly could, but there were too many crows and it was really hard to avoid them. Claudette was so confused, but she trusted Meg with her life, so if she said that jumping off the bridge was their only way out, she would have jump with no doubt in her mind.  
When they finally reached the gate, they saw a big lever beside the door, so they quickly figured out that they needed to pull it down to open it. Megan immediately tried to do that, but nothing happened.  
 _“Work, goddamnit!”_ , she thought to herself, repeatedly doing the same action. She only stopped when she felt Claudette’s hand in her shoulder. The scientist was pointing at a big, old machine some feet away: it was a generator full of loose wires. She leaned in Meg’s ear and whispered. “There’s no power. We need to get the power back and that is a electricity generator. We must fix it to open the gate.”  
Meg was terrified. She had no expertise with any kind of machine, much less a power generator, but they had no option. They needed to get it to work.

Both of them kneeled in front of the machine and inspectioned the wires, realizing they were from different colors. Good: at least it looked like it wasn’t rocket science. They just needed to connect those loose wires and they would run the hell out of there.  
But they were wrong when they thought it was going to be that easy. After some seconds on the activity, some links they did between the wires got broken, forcing them to reconnect them together and re-establish that link.

Meanwhile, Jake and Dwight were hiding in an abandoned building that led to what seemed a mining cave.  
Dwight barely could keep himself together, but he needed to patch up his friend. Ripping off part of his clothes, he covered Jake’s wounds to stop the bleeding. He was marveled at his capacity to stay quiet in such a nerve wrecking event, but there was no time to think. It wasn’t long until they both realized the meaning of hearing their own heartbeats: the closer the killer was to them, the loudest was the sound. However, no one could hear the heartbeats but themselves.

When the sound was gone, they decided it was a good time to move on. They started walking quietly, but Dwight scared some crows in the process. Jake frowned at his friend, but deep down below, he knew that there was something odd about the birds and their lack of reaction to his movements. Maybe, the people who used to say that he had a calm spirit was right.

After a minute of walking in no apparent direction, they heard an unfamiliar sound and saw something they didn’t see since they got to this strange place: light. It was coming from a power generator. Only after that, they realized that they have seen machines just like that one scattered over the place.

Then, they saw the girls, and Jake eyes shone in hope when he realized that his girlfriend was okay.  
When they reunited, they shared a quick group hug, sighing in relief, but they all knew there was no time for social gatherings. They all went to cover, crouching to reduce the chances of the killer seeing them. Meg was the first one to talk.

“Claud and I found a gate. It seems like it gets opened by a lever, but it apparently needs power.”, Meg whispered.  
“Yes. Actually, I think there are two gates”, Claudette added, pointing at other door in the far distance.”We just repaired a generator to get the electricity back and see if it gets the lever working. Those doors might be our way out.”  
“To your point… Jake and I saw more of those machines around the place, and I don’t think that they are just there for decoration. It’s very likely that we need to fix them all for the levers to start working properly.” Dwight responded, holding his head while thinking. “We need to split out to get them working faster. Let’s work in teams: Meg and I will repair the generator in the East, Jake and Claudette the generator in the West. Then, try the lever and if it doesn’t trigger the opening, then we look for more generators and keep trying the lever.”  
The group nodded in agreement, and each team took a separate way.

Every time that they heard the heartbeat, they quickly left the generator and hid somewhere safe. When the killer approached to the machine, he usually kicked it to damage it, considerably delaying their process. They still preferred that than beight caught.

After both groups repaired their corresponding generators, they tried the gate levers but didn’t get the desired response: they still didn’t have enough power, so both groups looked for another generator to fix. Dwight and Meg finished first. Something about being with Dwight motivated her to work faster. She wasn’t sure if it was only because it was the man she had feelings for, or because he was a natural leader. Working with him always seemed easier.

It took a little longer for Jake and Claudette. They discovered that connecting cables incorrectly could lead to an explosion that, naturally, made a lot of noise. They had to spend at least five minutes hidden for the killer to go away and let them continue. When they finally could, the progress was severely decreased and they had to reconnect a lot of wires that they had already connected previously.

“What’s taking them so long?” Meg whispered to Dwight, frowning. “They should have finished by n…”. The sound of the heartbeat interrupted her. The man of sadistic grin was getting closer. They crouched again and attempted to hide, but they both scared some crows while doing it. The murderer was really close now, to the point they could hear his breathing.  
Meg really loved Dwight, and she knew that he wasn’t going to be enough agile to escape, so all she could think was that she needed to get the man’s attention to save Dwight.  
“See you outside…”, she whispered in his ear and planted a peck on his lips just before sprinting from their location. “Over here, you psychopath!”, she yelled at him while running around and taunting at him. Dwight stood in his place in shock and horror, but he knew Meg, and he knew why she did what she did. He just prayed for the best.

If there was someone who could do this, it was her. She didn’t even make a sound when she started vaulting windows, confusing the killer and making him waste precious time trying to locate her. However, the murderer eventually caught up with her and damaged her arm, making her scream in pure pain.  
In the opposite side of the place, Claudette heard the scream. When she looked in the direction of the sound, she realized that somehow, she could see Meg running in the distance. She never believed in supernatural things, but if she had to describe it, she would have said that she was able to see Megan’s aura. “We need to hurry up.”, Claudette thought to herself, trying to control her trembling hands.  
Dwight was shivering while seeing Meg still running even if she was injured, but before he could get closer to help her, the sound of another generator echoed in the air: Jake and Claudette finished their work. Like it was magic, the redhead’s wound disappeared. She was as surprised as him, but there was no time to analyze anything. After dropping another pallet in the killer’s head, she quickly ran until she was out of sight, and after recovering from the impact, the murderer followed her footsteps, looking for her.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Dwight ran to the closest gate. When he made the last step to stand in front of the lever, an incredible pain invaded him: it was coming from his left foot. He screamed in horror when he realized that he was stuck in a bear trap.  
The killer approached to Dwight with heavy steps, and caught him by his waist to then carry him over his shoulder as he previously did with Claudette.  
Jake and Claudette just arrived to the location where Meg was and felt pure panic when they saw their friend in danger.  
The killer took Dwight to one of those giants hooks and hooked Dwight in a single movement as he was a piece of meat. His cry of pain was deafening.

“We need to help him before he dies!”, Meg said while crying uncontrollably, and Claudette hugged Meg to comfort her.  
“Claud, go to the gate and get it open if it’s possible. Meg and and I will save him.” Jake ordered and his girlfriend nodded. While the scientist took off to the gates, the remaining two got closer to Dwight’s location and spied the scene from a hiding spot. The killer was standing in front of him, looking at him like a hunter that admires its prey.

Meg and Jake tried approaching to him to create a distraction and save Dwight, but the killer managed to injure them both. In that moment, giant spider legs (or at least that was the most accurate description) bursted out of the hook, trying to penetrate on Dwight’s body.

“Leave!”, Dwight managed to say in the climax of his pain just before he couldn’t struggle any longer with the spider legs. He let go, and they took Dwight’s life instantly.  
“NOOOOOO!”, Megan screamed with red eyes, crying and pulling her own hair. She felt like she would fall to the ground because of the shock, but Jake pulled her and forced her to run to the now opened gate.  
Megan never stopped looking back when their friends obligated her to keep running and get out of that place through the exit gate. The last thing she saw was the body of her loved one, ascending to the dark sky.

Something evil had claimed his soul.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aghhhhh poor Dwight!! Please don't hate me and remember that death is not an escape ;)  
> If you're liking the story so far, please leave your comments below <3


	9. Jukai

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi lovelies! I finally was able to end this chapter. Life was difficult this week :( I need to get ready for exams so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to work on this tomorrow, but I'll probably start the next chapter on Saturday. See you soon <3  
> Song of the chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vowb5dcQmw
> 
> Also, thanks so much for your lovely comments! If you like the story so far, please don't forget to bookmark it :)

Claudette loved the moon. She used to spend hours just watching it in long picnic nights with Jake, head in his shoulder and arms tightly wrapped around each other. Sometimes, if the weather was cold, they would light a campfire and roast some marshmallows. They often made plans for the future and even talked about moving together when Claudette finished her career.   
Now, the moon was shining as brightly as it used to. It was the only thing that remained the same in this strange place.  
Megan, Jake and herself appeared on this oddly calm spot to be met with nothing more than silence. There were no sound of crows, footsteps or heartbeats.   
At the center of the scene, there was a campfire, similar to the ones she lighted with her boyfriend. However, there was something really strange about this one: it almost looked like it was on an eternal loop, never changing, never getting extinguished. It was just there, ethereal and predictable. There were a few branches around the fire that looked as improvised seats for a group of people that was nowhere to be found. There was no food, no water, no traces.

Megan was awfully quiet. She couldn’t even cry, so she limited to just take a seat near the fire and staring at it blankly with no signs of emotions in her eyes. Jake and Claudette attempted to talk to her, but she just glared at them as a sign of wanting to be left alone for a while, while the pair, on the contrary, had their eyes red of crying. Jake, being the most tough of the tree, was the first one breaking the silence after a long time of just sitting by the fire.

“I don’t remember how we got here.”, he said, the concern clear in his voice. He was scared that the trauma of losing a friend was making him crazy.  
“I don’t remember either.”, Claudette responded, looking up at him worriedly.  
“The last thing I remember is… Dwight...”, Meg said speaking for the first time in a while, whispering his name with nothing more than pain. “He sacrificed for us so we could escape from that monster”, she added, starting to shake, “And for what? For us to black out again and appear in this creepy place that is only surrounded by darkness. Where the fuck are we? What is happening? Am I dreaming?”, she asked more to herself than the others, finally allowing herself to succumb to her emotions and yell and cry. Claudette quickly wrapped her best friend in an embrace, making her bury Meg’s head in her chest. Although Claudette was devastated by the loss of Dwight, she started to suspect that it was different for the redhead. Maybe, there were things that she didn’t tell her, but it was not the right time to ask either way.

“I… I don’t think you’re dreaming. Meg, we both felt the pain of the knife in our bodies. We both nearly die. You saved me…”, Jake kneeled in front of the girls, placing his hand on Meg’s back reassuringly. “And he saved us. I don’t think I will ever get over his passing, but at least I know that he did it for us. That’s what I want to remember the most.”, he said softly, hearing Meg sobbing uncontrollably. “We need to figure out how to get out of here and make justice for him. We can’t let his death be in vain.”, he finally stated, gaining the will to get up and find the answers they needed. “You girls can stay here if you want, I’ll come back as soon as I can.”  
Claudette bit her lip and shook her head.”We don’t know where are we. I don’t want you going on your own in unknown places, especially after nearly getting killed by a psychopath.”  
“We are both coming with you. This place gives me the creeps. It has a Jukai vibe.”, Meg said, recovering her composure. She would never be able to forgive herself if Jake died because he was alone in some dark forest.

With that said, the trio gave the first step to start their path of exploration, when they heard grunts behind their backs. They stopped in their tracks and widely opened their eyes: they recognized the voice where the complaints were coming from. But how could it be?

“G-guys…?”, a quiet voice spoke, and Meg was the first one to turn around. When she finally saw the source of the sound, her mouth open in a big ‘o’ and she teared up, not believing her eyes.  
“Dwight…?”, she said louder than she wanted to, and quickly ran to him, cupping his face with her hands, studying his face to check that he wasn’t a product of her imagination.  
“Meg…”, he whispered, feeling a little more relieved of his pain with just the sight of her.  
“Are you actually real? How?? We saw you dying!”, she said while touching every spot of his face, his shoulders and his chest, noticing that he hadn’t any visible scars or wounds.  
“I remember dying as well.”, he replied, ignoring Meg’s exploration and tightly wrapping his arms around her, shutting his eyes and burying his face on her hair. “I thought I was dead. After those spider legs penetrated my body and took me to the sky, all was black. I remember nothing after that. However, I just woke up in the middle of the forest and followed a path until I saw the light from that campfire. I don’t know what happened but it looks like I’m not dead.”, he added, letting out a long sigh. “It was damn scary to wake up in so much darkness. I felt observed all the time.”

Claudette and Jake got closer to their friends and hugged them both, not believing what just happened. After some minutes of celebrating Dwight’s return, Claudette and Jake pulled away, but Dwight and Meg didn’t.   
Jake and Claudette interchanged looks. Although they were just as happy as Meg to see Dwight alive, they were much more concerned now than they were before. This definitely broke every rule about the life they used to know.

“We will let you two alone for a moment. Jake and I will see if we can find some information about how to get out of here.”, Claudette said nervously. Her scientific mind needed to know what the hell was going on. “Are you going to be okay?”  
“Yes, I think we will be fine. We’ll catch up in a moment.” Meg said simply before Claudette and Jake took off. Then, she directed her attention to Dwight again, speaking. “I really thought that I lost you…”  
“I’m here... “, he replied, pulling away just slightly so he could see her eyes. “So, know that I’m back, God knows how...when we were at your dorm, you were going to say something. You never really finished what you were gonna say.”  
“Yeah… and now that you mention it, I don’t think it can wait anymore.”, she said, sighing. “I really need you to know that what we have did change the way I feel towards our friendship. I realized that I don’t wanna be your friend.”, she made a dramatic pause and placed her hand on his shoulder, gently caressing it with her fingertips. “I wanna be more than that. As much as this takes to admit, I…”, she sighed heavily, trying her best to let out the following words, “I am in love with you, I can never stop thinking about you. When I thought you were gone, I felt like part of my soul was going to be forever lost. We still need to figure out how you came back, but for now, I’m just so glad that you’re alive. I don’t ever want to let you go.”, she finished, now staring deeply into his eyes.  
Dwight teared up. He was always kind of ashamed of how easily he showed up some of his emotions such as fear and joy, but right now he didn’t care. He thought that starting what they started was probably a bad idea; he was certain that he was going to get hurt: he would get in his feelings and get addicted to her, while she was probably going to quickly move on and actually fall in love with someone else, someone better than him. He never thought that someone like him had even a slight chance with Meg, a girl that was so bold, so energetic, so beautiful.  
“I’m in love with you too.”, he confessed, resting his forehead against hers, “I’ve been for a long time, but I never told you because I honestly think that I’m not enough for you and you would never return my feelings. Anyone would say that you’re totally out of my league.”  
Meg smiled brightly, shaking her head slowly. “You’re so wrong. I’m the only one who decides who is out of my league, and you…”, she said, wrapping her arms around his neck, “...you’re a ten out of ten for me.”  
They leaned closer to each other and sealed their love confession with a tender kiss, forgetting just for the moment where they were, and their uncertainty of the future.

Meanwhile, Jake and Claudette started to explore their surroundings. They discovered that there were several paths to choose, and the botanist noticed that there was plenty of plant species that she never saw before. Although the feeling of having new vegetation to study was exciting for her, she came to believe that they were not in their world anymore. As a woman of science, she didn’t believe in things being supernatural: she thought that those things that the human couldn’t explain were just that, things that we don’t have the knowledge (or science and scientific research) to understand. She thought that if God existed, then the humanity probably didn’t have access to that knowledge. At least, not yet. She didn’t deny strange events or entities: she just limited herself to say that she didn’t understand them enough.  
Somehow, now that she didn’t even have any proof, she just knew that this wasn’t the Earth anymore. This place did not seem to be governed by the known natural laws, but rather looked like a poor imitation of what they used to know. The leaves in the treetops swayed gently, but there was no wind. The fire never extinguished, and although they were in the forest, there wasn’t any insects or animals.  
“I don’t think we are going to be able to go back home.”, she spoke softly, picking up some rocks and throwing them behind her steps to find their way back to the campfire. “This place doesn’t look like anything that I’ve seen before. I’ve been studying physical and natural laws for years now and I never saw something quite like this. We need to investigate.”

After some minutes walking, they reached to a big old house pretty similar to the ones that you would see in a horror movie. It was made of bricks and the ceilings were black and angled. The house had a lot of windows, but they were all blocked so you couldn’t see what’s inside. When they stepped in the front door, they were discussing possible ways to open it. However, none of their ideas of how to do it were put in practice: at the mere touch of Claudette’s hand, the gate opened.  
Jake stepped inside first doubtfully, looking around with distrust. They silently agreed to stay quiet, since they didn’t know who could be inside.  
The first floor was immense. The living room had plenty of shelves full of books and a fireplace, and the floor was covered in a luxurious red carpet. Strangely, there was no bathroom or kitchen, but even more strange than that, they didn’t feel the need of using any of those rooms.  
After checking that they were the only ones on the first floor, they decided to go upstairs trying to be as quiet as they could, but the stairs cracked in each step they made, so Jake took the lead in case someone would try to hurt them. It was all awfully quiet.  
When they finally reached the last stair, they were shocked at what they saw: there were too many doors, probably more than fifty, and each one of them had a wood sign with names. Most of those were crossed out. One of those crossed out names called their attention due to the lack of the initial of a last name: ‘Vigo’. The first name that wasn’t crossed out was  
‘Benedict B.’

Who were those people?

At the end of the corridor, they saw the first four familiar names:

Jake P.  
Claudette M.  
Megan T.  
Dwight F.


	10. Benedict's journal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi lovelies!  
> First of all, I'm really sorry of my long absence. I was really busy with college and work (yes, I do both) and they took all my energies. Due to spending so much time not writing, I kind of lost my inspiration with this story, or at least, the inertia.  
> However, I do want to end it because you all deserve it. I have decided that the next chapter is going to be the last one. However, I plan on write more stories too, because I really enjoy writing fics. They will probably be just one-shots, but we'll see.  
> This chapter doesn't really have a song, but Benedic Baker is too awesome, he doesn't need one :D  
> As for the next chapter, I can't promise that it will be ready soon. Unfortunately, I'm going through a phase in my life that I lack of energy and motivation. I hope it doesn't last too long. However, I do promise that the last chapter will come. Please bookmark the story so you can see when it gets updated.
> 
> With that said, I hope you enjoy chapter 10. I would have liked it to be longer, but that would just take more time and I don't want to keep you guys waiting.  
> Thanks for your patience, I love you all.

Meg and Dwight noticed the path of stones that Claudette left behind her steps. They followed the trace, feeling more and more unsettled with every second that passed. The forest seemed to be pulled out from a nightmare, but not the kind where you would scream and run from monsters, but rather one where you feel constantly observed, surrounded by invisible eyes, darkness and a very disturbing silence. Asking themselves why there were so many paths and if any of them could possibly lead to an exit, they said that maybe in the morning, they would explore different directions and try to escape with the help of the sunlight.  
“I think my watch is broken. It’s saying nonsense: it said it was 3 AM just a second ago, now it says it’s 1:27 AM.”, Meg frowned while looking at the digital watch in her wrist.  
“It seems like mine is too. Look.”, Dwight responded and held out his wrist next to Meg’s. They both gasped in surprise when they noticed that their watches were strangely synchronized, showing the same random times in any given moment.   
“First, I come back from death, now, the the time is messed up. Am I having some kind of feverish dream?”, Dwight asked, pinching himself to check his theory, but when he let out a little whine, Meg shook her head.  
“No, you aren’t. Something really weird is going on. I wonder if there are any other people who don’t want to kill us and can give us information about this place.”, she replied while resuming to walk, scanning with her gaze all their surroundings to catch anything that stands out. After some minutes, they reached to the same house than Jake and Claudette and their eyes widened in surprise, not expecting to see such a big building in the middle of nowhere. Their friends were waiting for them in the porsche with a expression that was a mixture of fear, curiosity and concern.  
“What’s this place?”, Dwight asked to Claudette, and she stood up. The door was closed behind them, but she pulled Dwight’s hand for his palm to be just slightly away from the door knob and the door got opened by itself, making him gasp in surprise.  
“Apparently, our personal new haunted home.”, Jake replied for his girlfriend, leading them to get inside. “Don’t mind the disorder, Claudette and I were just reading some interesting journal before you arrived.” He added while pointing at a desk full of books and loose sheets of the said journal. It looked very old and dusty. ”I know the living room is pretty impressive, but wait until you see what’s next.”  
He started going upstairs, and the rest of the group followed him. “Also, I want to introduce you to our new member crew, but first things first…”, he said while stepping in front of the numerous doors. “These are your rooms.” Jake said while pointing at two doors with Dwight’s and Meg’s name.  
“What do you mean by ‘your rooms’, where are we?”, Meg folded her arms, raising her eyebrow.  
“You are not in your world anymore.”, a voice responded behind her back and the group turned to the source of the voice. The sound came from an unfamiliar man: he was wearing a long black coat and a white shirt, fancy black pants and shoes and a hat. The mysterious man was looking down, and when he raised his chin, Meg realized how tall he was. He looked intimidating and had short blond hair and beard. “This is the person I mentioned just a moment ago”, Jake said, staring at the man.   
“My name is Benedict Baker.”, the stranger introduced himself with a surprisingly deep voice. “I’d welcome you to your new home, but there’s nothing welcoming about this place. I’m deeply sorry that the Entity has chosen you.”, he said with a concerned look on his eyes, resting his fingertips in the crook of his nose. He noticed the confused look on Dwight and Meg’s face, so he said: “Please follow me. I figure that you have a lot of questions.”  
And with that, Benedict proceeded to explain everything he discovered about what he called “the Entity’s realm”: the house they were was the one where survivors could rest between trials and could save their items and offerings. The entity recreated their rooms from their past lives and each door could only be opened by its owner. However, it was allowed for other survivors to get into each other’s rooms.  
Benedict spent the following hours (if you could say that, because in reality, time didn’t exist anymore, at least not like they used to know) teaching them about how to use each item and offering; he described every killer he has faced and all the places that the Entity recreated for each trial. They learned that the psychopath who wanted to kill them all was called ‘The Trapper’, and the usual trap spots. Benedict told them about previous survivors, and he assured them that none of them were dead, but they were gone. They lost all their hope, so they were no longer useful for the Entity.  
“No one has ever came back from the Void…”, Benedict said. The Void was the place where the people who were survivors back in their times ended up when they lost hope. “Except for one man. One only exceptional man.”, he added, turning some pages in his journal and stopping in one which title was a name. ”Vigo. He was, or is, who the hell knows, a man of science like you, Claudette.”, he said looking down at the paper. “I crossed out his name because it’s highly probably that he’s dead, or worse.”  
“What do you mean by worse? And what kind of science?”, Claudette said with curiosity and fear, trying to catch a glimpse of Benedict’s journal.  
“So you are the one crossing out names…”, Jake added. Benedict nodded to Jake, and proceeded to respond to Claudette.

“Well, he was an inventor and a researcher. He eventually lost all hope and was sent to the void, but something in there caught his attention. In a certain time of the year, he wrote in his personal journal that a creepy plant flourished. It was the strangest plant he ever saw, and some kind of liquid was dripping from its leaves. He collected that liquid and made some questionable experiments that probably costed his life. It’s incredible how this world makes you do atrocities just to find a way out, whatever that way out is. Life, or death...”. He paused, standing up. A fog appeared beneath everyone’s feet except for Benedict, making him sigh hopelessly.  
“That’s the Entity’s call. You are going on a trial now. You have just a moment to grab your items and offerings. Hurry up.”, he warned.

That was the second trial that the four of them shared together of many others to come. They had the chance to go in trials with Benedict as well, but soon after that day, he disappeared from the Survivor’s house.  
They searched for Benedict everywhere, but he was nowhere to be found. All they had left from him was his journal. They hoped that they will reunite again.


End file.
